Loving and Hating Charles Bukowski by Linda King (2nd Edition)

Wild Ocean Press, in collaboration with KissKill Press, is pleased to publish a second edition of Loving & Hating Charles Bukowski, completely edited and revised from an earlier version published in 2012. The press release:

Linda King’s Loving and Hating Charles Bukowski

There are many books about Charles Bukowski, but none like this one. Linda King’s Loving & Hating Charles Bukowski looks at Bukowski from the other side of the mirror. It is raw, it is raucous, it is a no-holds-barred account of their five-year on-again off-again relationship, a relationship so intense and passionate, so deep and so tender, that it makes your heart ache to watch it flame up and then flame out.

This is not a scholarly examination of Bukowski but it deepens and enriches our understanding of the man and his world, written from the heart with love. It is funny, it is tragic, it is exuberant, it is heartbreaking, it is an important addition to our knowledge not only of the poet laureate of the underclass, but of the whole underground literary scene in LA and elsewhere in the 1970s, told from the perspective of a strong, liberated woman, an artist in her own right, who gave as good as she got.

Reviled by feminists and fanatically defended and mimicked by his cult-like followers, King shows Bukowski as both human, tender, loving, sensitive, abusive, mean-spirited and egotistical, a mass of contradictions and a hero or a devil, depending on which side of the mirror you see him from. As award-winning poet, writer and feminist Sharon Doubiago writes of this book:

When Charles Bukowski met Linda King he met his match. Bukowski and his literary lovers have been prime examples of the misogynist, criminally sick and insane world. His inexplicable appeal to women has been part of the madness. King’s memoir “explains,” taking us deeper into our tragic human situation toward understanding, thus healing and transformation. Here’s what Buk looked like when he fell in love! Los Angeles and Utah are here too beyond the ignorant and damning stereotypes. And the sexually active mother: her portrayal of her children through the 5 year affair is delightful. “Liberated Linda” is right! Loving and hating Charles Bukowski will never be the same.

Loving & Hating Charles Bukowski is available for purchase now from Wild Ocean Press.